A BOOK written by a loving husband in memory of his wife has now raised £2,000 for our patient care.
When Barbara Jennings was told the cancer she had been battling had reached the point where she had little time left, she told husband Ian that she wanted him to share their story of love and loss.
“I remember that when she knew she only had a short time to live she said: ‘I can’t believe I will have to leave you in a few months’ and then she told me I should write a book about it,” says the retired Sheffield Anglican Team Rector.
“It was part of her instinctive awareness that writing would be a therapeutic exercise and would help me through the process of grieving and also perhaps be helpful for other who are on the same journey.”
“We were in retirement mode and excited about the future when suddenly this vicious disease changed everything in a moment.
“None of those well-honed plans would be fulfilled. What is the point of prayer in the face of death? Are miracles possible? What to do in the heartbreak of brain cancer?
“These are some of the questions I try to answer with honesty and sensitivity in the light of my own experience.”
Barbara – who was mum to Sarah and Paul - died in 2016 and Ian kept his promise to write the book, By a Departing Light, which is now on sale and raising money for St Luke’s Hospice, where Barbara was a patient in her final months.
And after raising £1,000 in the first few weeks of publication in 2019, the book has continued to sell and has now doubled that figure.
By a Departing Light, which costs £7.99, is available at amazon.co.uk and at the Sheffield CLC Bookshop.